Spring 2013 Wardrobe Design. Part One: Orange and Blue.

anyone who knows me at all knows that for years, i have worn black. two years ago, i shocked some of my friends by sometimes wearing purple, navy blue or grey and, for the last four or five years, i'd been whining about how i wished i could wear colour but that every time i tried to incorporate some into my wardrobe, it just didn't work out for me. the colours i did wear were solids or, on occasion, plaids. i also wore coloured tights with completely black outfits or, when out at punk or psychobilly shows, sported bright animal print accents. i also love my pale pink, vintage ben sherman shirt but that was the only pink item in my closet. two years ago i even challenged myself publicly, on another blog, to add colour to my wardrobe and failed. no matter how much i could appreciate colours and prints on other people, i just couldn't do it for myself. 

then, last year, i began falling in love with english countryside looks with an edwardian feel to them. i sought out tweeds and plaids and suddenly found myself owning brown and oxblood fabrics and clothing. i'm not sure at what point the door to my batcave was blown open and the sunlight spilled in but i remember thinking, green and blue are my favourite colours so why don't i ever wear them? i also remember buying a dark yellow sweater (bad choice, given my arabic blood but, hey, it wasn't black) and a bright purple skirt and then, the next thing i knew, i was wearing colour and loving it. 

i think part of the problem is that whenever i did try to wear colour, friends who have been trapped in a time warp and believe me to be alongside them on that particular journey would scoff. "no. that's not you," and so on. spending time away from these people and hanging out with old friends in toronto was part of what helped the transformation along. hell, spending time in toronto at all, and out of my bubble, did it, too. i felt disconnected from everyone i knew here and free to discover other sides of myself. i wandered through streets that were new to me, soaked up kensington market, perused the thrift shops on king west. a friend i met here last year, jessie, also helped with this, given that she wears what she wants and has encouraged me to wear different things, too. either way, once i took the plunge, there was no going back! and, seeing that, as a kid, i was more punky brewster than wednesday addams, this made some sense. 

contemplating a spring wardrobe for myself is not something i'd ever given much thought to because, when all you wear is black, you're somewhat limited. i had warm clothing and clothing for warmer weather. again, i could appreciate what was happening in the fashion world and what others were designing and wearing but all without adhering to any of it, myself. this year is different and i'm so very excited about it!

last week-end i headed out to the fabricville in lasalle for inspiration and found it in one meter of discounted wool suiting fabric. i immediately imagined what i would make and what i would wear it with and, running with this idea, toured the shop and picked up a few other pieces that will look amazing in my personal, spring wardrobe. somehow, the end result is a blue, orange and neutral shade pallet. while this only represents what will be a third of this season's warbrobe makeover, who would have thought that i would have fallen for these colours and prints? certainly not i, had you asked me a couple of years ago!

the top piece was what made the rest come together:

i'm absolutely in love with it! what i'm thinking is that i need a pencil skirt out of it, to wear with a blouse made out of the second fabric in the pile, one-and-half-meters or cream-coloured poplin that was on sale for a whopping $2.00.

i'm liking vogue 8119 for this.

i can see these shoes from zappos.com working well with the outfit, too. the hunt for the perfect handbag as also begun.

next up, we have this lovely, orange, crepe. 

which i intend to use with vogue pattern 8825:

the next two fabrics are chiffon, for blouses. the orange  twill will be for another skirt and i would very much like to make myself a dress out of the blue fabric on the bottom but i have yet to figure out what design i would like to go with. the first four fabrics were bought at fabricville, last week-end, and the other three i already owned. the dark blue is leftover from the grade six grad dress i made for my daughter, last june:

to add to the blue and orange pallet, i found this be-bop dress on sale at winners for $13:

i'm not usually a fan of the short skirt on curvy women, like myself, but i'm a sucker for houndstooth and i think i can rock this with a pair of black, opaque tights and a cropped, black blazer.

last but not least, i will pull out a dress i bought last summer (it's in storage now, seeing as i don't have room for all of my clothing and must alternate between fall/winter and spring/summer wardrobes. you can't see the dress but the print is really cute so i'll share it with you:

the dress came from winners, the clutch from a clothing exchange and the shades are vintage, from the 1960's, and came as part of a lot of items i won on ebay, a few years back.

Posted in: ava's grad dress,blue,blue and orange,color,colour,montreal,orange,sewing,sewing projects,spring fashion,spring wardrobe,vogue 8119,vogue 8825,winners,zappos.com